Jury reaches verdict on how much Alex Jones should pay Sandy Hook victims

So I stink at trying to determine whether something is a rhetorical question, and I’m also not a libertarian law expert.

But as to the question you posed, Alex Jones has a first amendment right, as do we all, and he exercised it. That right has not been infringed upon and he remains free to say whatever he wants. The First amendment prohibits the government from impeding a persons right to free speech.

These verdicts simply stand for the idea that there can be consequences for the exercise of free speech, consequences laid out under civil law like lawsuits for defamation, slander, libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Unfortunately, people who mindlessly cry “free speech!” in response to these verdicts are some combination of uneducated, stupid, unwilling or unable to read, and just bad people rooting for a bad person.

 

People like this find ways around things like this. Sure, I expect it will be harder for him. But, bad people know how to hide assets and still live the high life. I hope I’m wrong.

 

Yes, I'm a big free speech guy, but I don't view this as a free speech issue. This is a civil lawsuit, not the government inhibiting his free speech.

Also, this guy just seems like a bad person all around. I don't feel sorry for him one bit.

 

Fox News and its lies await the 1.6B dominion voting systems defamation lawsuit.

 

Thanks for your comment. It wasn’t rhetorical. I’m genuinely curious how smart folks on here might argue the other side — that this was an overreach that infringes on his civil rights.

 

I do. I think he's a scumbag and should have to pay what he owes.

 

You're ridiculous and just a complete shill.

 

If Alex Jones didn't go after the victims directly and simply peddled conspiracy theories about some unnamed individuals or some groups (even some religious or race), there would be no defamation lawsuit.

 

The only proper/intelligent discussion to be had is whether (1) the verdicts comport with the facts and applicable state law (ie, whether there is legal error that could cause a judge to revise the verdict or the verdict could be overturned on appeal), and (2) even assuming the verdict is supported by the facts and law, whether the legal community thinks that the verdict is outside the range of reasonableness based on other verdicts. I don’t know the applicable state law well enough to opine on issue 1, and I don’t know whether comparable cases exist and what they might say about issue 2.

I don’t think we have seen a case like this, so it will be tough to consider analogous verdicts. The OJ verdict was a long time ago, and the manner and breadth of harm was different as well. I could make a strong argument that the total emotional damage caused by Jones is dramatically higher than OJ.

Is it 965MM worth? No idea. In my mind, there is nothing you could pay me to endure what these people did. Apparently thr jur6 thought so too. They were tasked with assigning numbers, and they assigned some big ass numbers.

 

That's very likely true but it probably wouldn't be as effective / profitable as to focus on an actual incident.

 

I'm not a lawyer but just from my layman's point of view it looks very difficult for Jones to get an appeal. His own behavior during the trial showed that he was completely inconsiderate of the not just the victim's families but also the judge. That he also had admitted that Sandy Hook wasn't a hoax he made the case that he knew this wasn't true and that he didn't care what harm his actions might've caused.

 

Wow.

Talk about peeing on your leg and telling you it's raining.

P.T. Barnum would be proud.

 

interesting

Cop after Cop gets off with cold blooded murder. . . . .and it is not attached to them for life
It is just a minor asterick on their report card
and people will argue to death that they didn't murder anyone
YET
The same folx want to say OJ Murdered someone when the same courts says otherwise

Rocket River

 

They also ONLY want that Free Speech to be for THEIR SIDE

Rocket River

 

LAW AND ORDER

 

free speech is an absolute

You should be allowed to say whatever you want and not have your wealth confiscated.

 

99.99% of the time, this is the case. That's pretty damn good if you ask me.

 

Wrong. U can't go around saying u will assassinate the president, or u want to go on a ethnic killing spree without any consequences.

You can say whatever u want in this country but its not a get out jail card. It doesn't allow u to defame someone hence y defamation lawsuits exist, to protect those getting screwed over by "freedom of speech"